Each business day HedgeCo.Net keeps you informed with the top hedge fund industry news, opinion and insight from around the globe. From the latest hedge fund launches, to the impact of regulation, competition, and investor activism - we track the topics and people that make a difference to you.
BusinessWeek – The collapse of Lehman Brothers on Sept. 15, 2008, and the ensuing stock market crash forced Bob Olstein, who has been analyzing companies’ financial statements and managing money for 41 years, to change the way he evaluates and invests in stocks. Now, his new rules and focus on "quality" companies have enabled his fund, Olstein All Cap Value, to sail ahead of the market’s swift recovery.
BusinessWeek – The list of dissidents is much smaller than the original 20 or so hedge funds that veoted a pre-bankruptcy deal to reduce Chrysler’s outstanding secured debt. The list of hedge funds that are still members of the opposition group calling themselves Chrysler Non-Tarp Lenders is down to just six funds. In all, the funds control $295 million of Chrysler debt, a far cry from the nearly $1 billion the original group of 20 had controlled.
The dissidents included funds managed by Schultze Asset Management, Arrow Hedge Partners, Stairway Capital, OppenheimerFunds, Foxhill Capital Partners and Group G Partners. Early on, Stairway Capital and Oppenheimer had been identified as leaders of the Chrsyler holdouts, but the others funds had not.
BusinessWeek – The anger was evident at Citigroup’s annual meeting on Apr. 21, where shareholders took turns at the microphone to object to how the bank has been operating. The meeting is usually a well-attended affair lasting many hours as shareholders air their grievances, and Tuesday’s gathering was as somber and full of ire as ever.
When Citi Chairman Richard Parsons recognized the five departing members of the board, who include ex-chairman Win Bischoff and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, one man from the audience yelled out: "Thank God you’ve gone!"
BusinessWeek – Macquarie Capital Group and State Bank of India (SBI) plan to raise a new $2 billion fund that will invest in direct infrastructure investment opportunities in India.
Macquarie and SBI have signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a company and manage the proposed fund. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), as one of the fund’s cornerstone investors, will also have a stake in the proposed company.
BusinessWeek – A prominent Manhattan lawyer accused of peddling $700 million in phony securities to hedge funds will likely forgo a trial and change his plea to guilty, his attorney told a judge Thursday.
The defense announcement came at a hearing at which Marc Dreier pleaded not guilty to a revised indictment accusing him of money laundering in addition to previous charges of securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit those crimes.
INDYchannel.com – Facebook remains on the lookout for acquisitions after its failed attempt to buy microblogging site Twitter, one of the company’s directors and largest investors says. "We’re still focusing on growing as much as possible," says Peter Thiel in an interview with BusinessWeek.
In Facebook’s first public confirmation of the talks, Thiel said the parties disagreed over price and structure when they seriously considered a deal last fall. "It became pretty clear it wasn’t going to happen," Thiel says from the mid-Manhattan office of his hedge fund Clarium Capital. "The deal would have to be done with Facebook stock. And then you have to figure out how much the stock is worth."
BusinessWeek – The market for exotic securities hasn’t entirely gone away. It’s just gone underground—-six feet under, to be precise.
Hedge fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management is plunging into life settlements—a market in which speculators buy-up unwanted life insurance policies from wealthy individuals looking to score some quick cash. The $10 billion New York-based fund is planning on selling so-called “death bonds” to overseas investors, as part of a plan to potentially raise cash to finance its life settlements acquisition business.
BusinessWeek – With the price of gold racing higher over the past two months, more investors are coming around to the notion that the precious metal may be the best option to protect against a possible economic catastrophe. Among the surprise new buyers? Star hedge fund manager David Einhorn.
Gold rose steadily from its November 2008 low of $682 to close at $910.70 on Jan. 26, a five-month high. Despite selling off about $10 an ounce over the next two days, investors, it seems, have realized that much of the Federal Reserve’s plan for fighting the credit crunch and reviving the economy are also likely to bolster gold’s prospects.
CNET News – I’ve blogged about Marketcetera before, a cool open-source hedge fund trading platform. Later this week I’ll be posting an update after I interview the Marketcetera team, but keep bumping into stories that make me wish the interview were today, not Thursday.
For example, Businessweek recently offered up an opinion piece from a San Francisco-based hedge fund trader, who argued for an open-source trading platform:
